Forest Children
by Windskull
Summary: As night falls during a trip through the Lost Woods, and Navi and Link find themselves caught in the rain. Seeking shelter leads to the two running across one of the forest dwellers, and learning just a little more about the life of those that aren't lucky enough to live in the Kokiri Forest.


Despite the thick canopy, rain still managed to seep into the lost woods, leaving both Link and Navi soaked. If the being soaking wet was not bad enough, what little sunlight was getting through the clouds had already faded from the lost woods as twilight was quickly giving way to night, leaving only the pale light of Navi and a few wayward forest fairies to guide the child in the dark.

Wandering would soon turn dangerous. Navigating the woodland was hard enough in daylight. But at night? Well, even with a guardian fairy, it would be easy to become hopelessly lost.

Navi glanced back at the child following her. He looked about as cold and miserable as she felt. And when he let out a little sneeze and tried to shake some of the water off, she decided enough was enough.

"Link," she started sharply, lowering her voice once her charge had taken notice of her. "We should find somewhere to rest for the night. A cave or a large, hollow stump would work. Then we can dry off and warm up."

The boy stared for a moment, then nodded. Yes, her words made sense. When she did a one-eighty and went back along the direction they had come from, he followed. Right, they HAD passed a cliff earlier. Surely there was a good chance of finding a cliff or even an overhang there, right?

But the Lost Woods were known for their twists and turns. Unfortunately, they never found the cliff. Fortunately, they did find a large, fallen log, hollow and mostly dry on the inside, as far as Navi could tell. Inside it, there was just enough space for Link to stand if he stooped down just slightly.

Navi fluttered inside, relieved to finally be out of the chilly wind and rain. Link followed suit, but as he finally reached the drier insides of the log, he found himself stumbling over something. Something big, and slightly warm, that rattled when his foot caught on it, and let out a startled noise that sounded akin to a squawk as he fell over on top of it.

With his face in a pile of leaves, Link groaned for a moment, then sat up to gather his bearings. He expected to see some sort of animal staring back at him as he turned back to see what he'd tripped over. He had not expected to be greeted by glowing, cautious orange eyes.

"Watch out," Navi warned as Link reached for his blade, fluttering forward to place herself between Link and the other person. In the little light that she gave off, Link could see the ridges of bark, and the outline of the beak of a skull kid. Upon recognition of the forest spirit, Navi relaxed slightly, and lowered flew a little closer. A skull Kid would not likely mean them any harm. As she flew lower and closer to his hands, the other child's fingers drummed nervously at a wooden flute in his hands, until he finally built up the courage to sniff at the air, and his face lit up with recognition.

"Wait! I know you! You're the fairy boy from before, the one with the ocarina. The one that gave me the mask!" The child quickly turned to reach for something behind him, and when he turned back, he had adorned the familiar skull mask.

Link's face, despite his dreariness from the wet and cold, and exhaustion, lit up in turn too. He flashed the other boy a grin. Navi, now certain that the other child meant no harm, finally relaxed and flew up to rest on Link's shoulder

"What are you doing out here, in the forest, in this log?" The skull kid asked, before lowering his voice to a whisper. "You're not… you're not _lost_ , are you?"

Link shook his head, and Navi answered the rest of the question for him. "We have a pretty good idea of where we are, but it's cold and rainy, and dark out now. We wouldn't want to get hopelessly lost. What about _you?_ I mean, I know your kind lives in the lost woods. But why are you here, in this log, by yourself?"

Skull Kid blinked. "This is _my_ log. I live here. Or at least, I sleep here usually." He reached down to pat the thick bed of leaves beneath the two of them, and his beak twisted slightly into a smile. "Most of the other skull kids like to stay deeper in the forest. But I like it here best. On quiet evenings, I can hear Saria playing her music, and sometimes I can even hear kokiri playing in the distance. It's a lot less scary than the sound of the wolfies."

"…Wolfos?"

"Yeah, wolfies!" Skull Kid giggled and laid back against the back side of the log.

Link glanced towards Navi and shrugged. Navi flew up for a moment to flutter around Skull Kid, before returning to her perch. "So, sorry to ask, but since it's dark, and raining, would it be okay if Link and I slept here? Or at least rested for a while? Or would it be better if we left?"

Skull Kid sat back up, sitting with his feet together and placing his hands on them. "No, please stay! It'll be like a… like one of those… sleepovers! Wow, I've never been able to have a sleepover before!" Suddenly, he hopped up to his feet; but, having forgotten the height of the log, managed to bump his head. "Ow." Rubbing the back of his noggin with a sheepish grin, he quickly got to work scooping up the dead leaves scattered around the log and started moving them together into a second pile next to the ones that had been worn down by his restful form.

Link stepped back to the edge of the log to get out of the way, beginning to wring out his tunic away from the sleeping space. He'd gotten used to sleeping in open fields and other less comfortable areas during his travels. Even so. There was something exciting about this. After all, when was the last time he'd gotten a chance to have a sleepover himself? Certainly, before he had to set out on this crazy journey!

Navi, for the moment, stuck closer to the skull kid, a nagging thought hanging in the back of her mind.

"So… you said you sleep here?"

"Yeah!"

"…Alone?"

"Well… yeah. Like I said, most of the other skull kids stay deeper in the forest. Most of them don't get along with the kokiri very well. I guess the feelings mutual though. When kokiri see me around they usually stay away. Sometimes they point out my, um, lack of facial features."

Navi was quiet for a moment. She couldn't argue that they were wrong, to be fair. The skull kid's most distinctive feature was his beak. Beyond that, his head was almost perfectly round, like a wooden scarecrow. His face featured no nose, his eyes were just small glowing orbs, and if he had ears, they were hidden by his much more distinctive hat.

If Skull Kid was upset about the thought, however, he quickly bounced back. "But it's okay!" He continued quickly. "It gives me a good reason to pull pranks! Like burying rocks under the leaf fall for people to trip over. Or pouring water on people from the trees! But nothing too dangerous of course. My old friends said they'd beat me up if I seriously hurt anyone again."

"Again?"

Skull Kid quickly shook his head. "Uhhh… let's talk about something else." Satisfied with his placement of leaves, he faltered for a second before giving them one last pat, then let his smile return and waved Link over. "It's all ready. Don't worry, I promise I've checked for spiders and other bugs, no pranks right now."

Link tilted his head, his mouth in a slight frown. But he shrugged off his doubts and stepped back over and sat back against the side of the log next to the skull kid. His damp clothes still stuck to the leaves, but it was certainly much better than it had been before.

"You don't talk very much, do you friend?" Skull Kid asked, to which Link shook his head and shrugged.

"He's more the strong, silent type," Navi answered for him, only slightly joking, eliciting a giggle out of Skull Kid and an embarrassed blush out of Link. "Link here is on a big quest to save the world, sent by the princess of Hyrule herself!"

"Wow, that's so cool! I wish I was strong like that. I wish I could meet a princess! The closest I've ever gotten to doing that was playing pretend with a couple of Deku Scrub kids. She was the princess, he was the butler, and I was the nasty imp playing mean tricks on them. Is the princess still in the Kokiri Forest? It would be really neat to meet royalty for real!"

"Well…" Navi started while Link smiled sheepishly, debating on how much she should share. "We didn't exactly… meet her in the forest. We had to travel all the way to Hyrule Castle."

The skull kid seemed to think about this for a moment. "Wait… were you just playing pretend then too? I thought… I heard that kokiri died when they left the forest?"

Navi fluttered down to rest on Link's shoulder once again. "Ah, right, about that. You see… the thing is… Link may not even be a kokiri at all." Both Link and Skull Kid whipped their gaze around to stare at Navi, and Skull Kid let out a small gasp. There was a moment of silence before Navi continued. "Listen, I don't really know for sure. The Deku tree never told me. He just told me to go to Link and help him. But… that would make the most logical sense wouldn't it? Why else would it have taken so long for Link to get a guardian fairy?"

Skull Kid was the first to recover from the revelation. "Oh wow… Well that's not so bad though is it? At least you still had kokiri friends to play with, right?" When Link didn't answer, however, and instead turned his head and averted his gaze to the ground, Skull Kid's face fell slightly. There was a long pause, then slowly, tentatively, Skull Kid reached over to wrap his wooden arms around the other boy's waist.

Link opened his mouth slightly and looked back to see the skull kid had removed his mask and was resting his head against him. "Well, that's okay," Skull Kid started. "We're friends, right? It's just like I said when we played music together before. I don't really have any friends either, you know. I mean… I did, but I think they hate me now."

Link considered the boy's words for a moment, then gave him a little nod, cracking the tiniest smile. Skull Kid's eyes shone just slightly brighter for a moment, and for a few minutes the two just sat in the hug in silence. Finally though, Skull Kid pulled away, only to lay his head in Link's lap, staring up at the other boy.

"Hey," he started, bringing his hands up to rest on his stomach. "If you're not a kokiri, and you got a fairy, do you think… do you think that one day, I could get a fairy too? Ever since I settled down so close to the Kokiri Woods, I've always wondered if… maybe if a fairy had found me way back when I got lost in the woods years ago, maybe I could have… maybe I wouldn't have become a skull kid? Maybe I wouldn't have…"

He trailed off, and Link sensed that it was Link's turn to offer some comfort. He reached over and gave Skull Kid's hand a gentle squeeze, grabbing Skull Kid's attention and putting a tiny smile on his face.

Navi hesitated for a moment, choosing her words carefully, not wanting to ruin the moment. "Link… is kind of a special case I think. The Deku Tree and the Princess have sent him on a journey to save the world after all! But… Even though it's unlikely you'd ever get a guardian fairy, there are a lot of fairies that never become guardians. I see no reason why they couldn't be your friends though."

Despite the first statement, the Skull kid still seemed to cheer up at the thought. "I guess that would be okay, friends are a nice thing to have."

The two boys smiled at each other for a moment, until Link finally let out a yawn. How late had it gotten with the three of them just hanging out? Skull Kid quickly sat up, giving Link the opportunity to stretch before readjusting himself to lay down in the bed of leaves with his friend laying to the side of him. He rolled onto his side, and after a moment he felt a rough, bark covered arm over his side, and Skull Kid's head resting against his back.

As the two started to drift to sleep, lulled by the soft pitter patter of rain above, Link finally spoke for the first time that night.

"Skull Kid?"

"Mm?"

"You mentioned Saria earlier. You know Saria, don't you?"

"Yeah, she's really nice. She's the only kokiri that's not afraid of me and doesn't make fun of me. She let me listen to and learn her song."

"I think she's really nice too. Let's stay friends, okay?"

"You mean it? You promise?"

"Yeah. I promise."

* * *

I like exploring little moments between characters that could have happened.

There is one throwaway line in this story that is meant to loosely reference the Zelda Encyclopedia take on Majoras Mask, but that's not everyone's cup of tea so feel free to ignore it.

Also, This story was not meant to be shippy at all, but if you're a fan of the Link/Skull Kid ship then feel free to interpret it that way!


End file.
